Author's Note: And now we are back to our regularly scheduled programming. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
The Patton family Island's main purpose was to serve as a training ground for the Royal army, it was a decently sized territory, mostly rough mountainous terrain, the kind of place where it was a work out just to get around from place to place. Here were a set of large green tents pitched side by side to each other, inside of which five people were still sleeping in, five minutes past their six-AM wake up call, for which they would suffer immensely. General Patton alongside his lieutenant walked into the tent in question, looked at the five occupied cots in question and shook his head in dismay. The Lieutenant on the other hand held up his bugle to his mouth and blew. With a loud Calvary charge all Five of the Five Fools were sent flying out of their cots.
"I'm so glad you fools are getting your beauty sleep." The Five Fools slowly stood up rubbing their heads the general walked by them, before using his crop to smack each of them into an acceptable standing position. "I understand you five beauty queens are used to getting up at noon for your fancy little brunches and tea parties but out here, Wake up is at 6 sharp and it is now six o five!" The General looked at Chris directly as he spoke, standing in front of him face to face eye to eye. "So not only have you slept in, a good way of getting on my bad side by the way, but you also missed out on breakfast!" The general snapped as he stood at attention on the far side of the room. "Now get your scrawny little butts out on the course for 20 laps!"
"What was that about breakfast?" Greg asked still sounding half asleep.
"You missed Breakfast! The only thing you little princesses are eating till noon is dirt! Now move it!" Four out of Five Fools ran outside, Brad on the other hand, having slept naked and thus was now standing naked, started to put on the fatigues that were next to his cot.
"Lieutenant did I tell Private Field to get dressed!?" Brad so did not like where this was going.
"Can't say you did sir."
"Of Course not! I believe that if someone is comfortable enough to sleep in Au Naturel then he is comfortable enough to train Au Naturel too! Now move it!"
Angelica looked at the clock as she woke up at 11:25, was it the middle of the night? That was weird her internal clock must be-
"Miss Angelica." The clock spoke with hundreds of voices. "You are on Winter Break, you can sleep in should you desire."
Angelica looked up at the ceiling and glared.
"At a point of curiosity were you a man or woman before you turned into a clock?" The thought occurred to the duchess that this clock could've been watching her, bare butt naked, the entire night.
"We were a few hundred women, several dozen men and a clock tower." Angelica let out a sigh as she sat up.
"Where are the others?" For now Angelica started to get dressed. "Most of them are asleep, the Young Master is having an argument with his brother."
"When did his brother get here?" Angelica asked as she started work on getting her hair into an acceptable state.
"He is not. They are using a magic item designed specifically to enable two way communication with the compound. Of which we are still a few hours away."
"So in addition to the ability to appear and disappear at will you also have the ability to communicate over obscenely long distances and travel at absurd speeds." Angelica summarised the details of a extremely dangerous air-ship that she reasonably suspected that most of the high ranking nobility in the kingdom would murder for. "Tell me is this because you're a demon or is there something else absurdly dangerous about your masters that we don't know about?"
"Umbran magic." The clock stated bluntly. "If you have no intention of going back to sleep then would you like some breakfast? We have an excellent selection such as French Toast-"
"I have no idea what that is." Angelica stated as she finished her hair. "How many items are on the breakfast menu?"
"21 items."
"Prepare one serving of everything and an appropriate place to eat." Angelica stated aware of how monstrously high her metabolism actually is. "Right away Miss."
"Oh and while you're preparing that let me know where Leon is having his argument." With that Angelica finished getting ready for the morning.
"That's probably wise, you seem to be the main topic that they are arguing about." Oh. That's fantastic.
"Not only did you invite some random girl into our home, but you also managed to bring in the whole bloody maid Legion!" Nick was pacing on his end of the mirror, in a particularly foul mood.
"I can't particularly remember doing any such thing." Leon stated bluntly as he crossed his arms and narrowed a glare.
"Oh so I can just shoot the whole Redgrave ship out of the air?" Rodin, who had been quietly working the counter of his bar up until now, smacked Nick the back of his head.
"I really wouldn't do that Lord Blackmore." Angelica walked in on the Captain's quarters, she was wearing another dress that she looked stunning in, though it was not suited to either adventuring or the gala, so normal clothes then. "My apologies for not discussing the matter with my father before getting here. The letter he sent you should explain that he intends to give due compensation." Angelica really wanted to ask how the mirror works but she instead opted to lower her head repentantly. Unlike certain individuals she cares not to admit, she at least understands the concept of self restraint and diplomacy.
"He did." This time it was Rodin who spoke up. "Which is why Nick here is off to start building the facilities needed for guests on Leon's island. After all we need more than just demons to farm there, even if they do come equipped with the right tools for the job." Guest house today, work house tomorrow.
"Sure I'll take care of it..." Nick mumbled as he walked away.
"You'll have to excuse him Angelica, he's put himself under a lot of stress." Leon stated letting out a sigh.
I write on the Blackmore's military power, with their permission, not because I view them as a enemy but because I note the similarities to Fannossian Monster Armies, and thus hope that the information here can provide insight. For their armed forces alone, we should consider raising the Blackmore families noble ranking. While the number of humans that they field is relatively few and far between, the infamous Umbran Witches and Warlocks, they are out numbered several times over by the number of demons they field.
As we approached the island we met the first of these creatures, the Insidious, a massive and unusual looking demon the only comparison I can draw would be to the manta ray I prepared for Master Gilbert during his 'exotic foods' phase. These creatures are massive enough to be considered warships of their own, and are similarly armed to the teeth. The Insidious is reportedly capable of fire missiles as their main means of offence, and worst yet this creature is reportedly one giant flying coliseum, scooping up lesser demonic creatures and other unwary victims and forcing them to fight to the death in it's gullet. For this same reason the Insidious also doubles as a highly effective troop transport unit.
Inside of the Insidious are the Nightmares, giant blob like demons reportedly born of fear, they have their own pocket dimension inside of their bodies which they use in a semi-symbiotic relationship with other demons. The Nightmare consumes other creatures and stores them inside of this pocket dimension, the weakest are killed and broken down for nutrition, while the strongest gets a free ride and becomes a weapon for the Nightmare to wield. In combination with the Nightmare, the Insidious's troop transport capabilities are simply insane.
As for the troops themselves, the Blackmore's prefer the use of the Hideous Demons, the creatures being among the most common among the demons that they can summon, with stronger variants being produced as the creatures engage in increasingly elaborate acts of cannibalism and violence resulting in the middle rank demons the Hatred and the higher ranking Horror who act as unit commanders and generals respectively. There are however a variety of other demons for a variety of different situations, the air born Bianco Angelo's for instance. More on them later.
Cordelia Fou Easton on the Blackmore Demon Army
The Blackmore's fortress home was a strange little place, aside from the chains it's rings were also connected together by a series of tunnels, housing one very specific very unusual vehicle. It was like several large luxury carriages that had been hooked together, in lieu of roads there were several rails not unlike those installed in some dungeons and as it moved along it made a distinct 'chugga chugga' noise. Still their arrival and escort by the less than enthused elder brother had left the lot of them jumping at every shadow, largely because said shadows stood up, took their bags and were now carrying them around for them. Eventually they did arrive at the island that had been turned into a coffee farm, notably with no land visible to build a house on. Instead Nick produced a suitcase, inside of which was a large orb composed of unknown material, which he then tossed into the air as he put on a top hat and whipped out a wand tipped with a bat's wings in one hand, and a large blue club in the other. With a wave of the wand Nick pulled through the void of space a huge mass of water and wrapped it around the orb, with a wave of the club the ice froze and compressed into ice as the newly formed iceburg floated in the air.
Discarding the club Nicks continued to wave the wand around, carving out a rectangular base from the ice that he then lined with concrete, installed wooden support beams, pipes. The More Nick waved the wand around the more the building appeared until eventually a whole mansion was built on the spot. The surface of the ice was melted away and mixed in with dirt and other essentials creating topsoil, from which a bounty onyx and garnet coloured roses grew.
"Shall I assume this is acceptable?"
"More than acceptable." Cordelia gave a light bow to Nick, thus hiding how stunned she was that he had something like this he could call upon seemingly on whim. "You've been a gracious host lord Blackmore."
"Tell me that again after your master gets the bill." Saying that Nick walked away back to his own workshop, he still had his own projects he needed to work on after all.
Angelica had asked for everything as part of her meal, and so she had gotten everything. Sausage, bacon, french toast with cinnamon, various juices, eggs, cereal, the only thing more impressive than Angelica's spread was the rate by which she was making it disappear. If she told Leon that she had an incinerator for a stomach he'd believe her. Soon the other girls had come from their own rooms, dressed in their own casual clothes and had ordered their own breakfasts for the morning as they chatted the rest of the trip over away.
With a loud 'plop' the white sloppy substance was dropped into Brad's food trey, with a second plop the toast to go with the creamed peas was dropped on top, equally as unappetising as the burnt sausage and the browned lettuce he had already gotten. With a sigh Brad joined his fellow fools as they sat together off to the side of the eating area. Approaching one of the young men that was eating his own food the young mage thought to befriend his fellow soldiers.
"So what do you gentlemen call..." Brad wanted to say it was a Fine Delicacy but that would just make him sound sarcastic. "...food."
"A Fine Delicacy." The soldier stated without an ounce of sarcasm.
"For real?" The purple haired pretty boy asked sounding shocked and appalled.
"Spend enough time on the front lines and you come to equate 'made with fresh ingredients and not burnt to charcoal' with 'Gourmet Cooking.'" The soldier explained in a sour mood. It hadn't quite occurred to these spoiled brats that one of the women that they screwed over was the daughter of their commanding officer, so they felt like it was their personal mission to screw them over as much as possible. Speaking of which, a kick from one of the men in question sent Brad's tea directly into his food. "Also, tend to just call it 'garbage' when that happens."
How was this supposed to be a vacation?
The girls arrived directly to Leon's island, in addition to the expected Coffee plantation there was already a fully furnished dock, as well as a mansion that looked suspiciously like it was floating on it's own separate island that was composed mostly of ice.
"You found a floating ice burg too?" Angelica asked brow quirked in concern.
"They're rare, mostly because they melt in the sun." This one looked weird though, the area around it was dark like the light wasn't touching it, and as she approached it felt hot, like the heat was being pushed away.
"I didn't find it, Nick probably made it." Leon stated as he led the girls to walk up the path.
"Your brother 'made' a floating island?" Angelica asked sounding suspicious.
"Iceburg but yes. If I know him he just didn't want to have wasted all the work he already did on making the farm by putting an actual house on top of it." Leon stated while he just shook his head in the negative.
"Is it safe?" Angelica asked making a sour face. "Safe as can be, Knowing Nick he already inscribed the magic formula to turn the light and heat into a massive electromagnetic field to suck in all the mana into the formation. It's already self-sustaining." Angelica face was screwed into a almost unrecognisable.
"Is that possible?" The Duke's Daughter was already thinking about the possibilities that this formation could be used for: Ending Alzer's monopoly on magi-stones as a result, a permanent defensive embankment, an all mighty warship that will-
"No doesn't look like it." Leon stated letting out a sigh.
"What?" Angelica wasn't happy to let her fantasy get interrupted.
"Nick just planted a whole bunch of Onyx and Garnet Roses here." Leon explained gesturing to the flower bed that was at his feet.
"Oh Garnet roses I remember these!" Olivia fell to her knees as she examined the plants in question. "We were using them for my magic control training back at the academy." Olivia explained as she smelled the aroma that the flower bushes had been giving off. "They absorb magical energy from the atmosphere and trap it in their petals, whatever doesn't get used to grow the plant instead gets sunk into the ground to use for later."
"Correct." Leon stated bluntly. "Which also makes them the perfect power source for the magic formation." Angelica said nothing, simply walked forward and slapped Leon across his face. "And what was that for?" Leon asked cocking a suspicious brow at Angelica.
"Toying with my hopes." Angelica spat, already the fantasy of what she'd do with a mana absorbing spell dashed.
"Well I know one way to make up for it." Leon walked to the edge of the island and pointed downwards. Angelica and the girls followed the direction of her finger. Olivia paled, Jillian's glasses dropped, Sarah shook her head and walked away, Clarice gasped, and Angelica got all excited.
"Is that-?"
"The files on my family does mention it. I think." Leon replied to Angelica's question before she could finish it.
"Nope! Nope! I'm not dealing with this crud today!" Sarah already started heading back to the ship. "If anyone needs me I have an armour to take apart and rebuild!"
"I need to go write a letter." Jillian quickly followed. Before Clarice could say anything Dan just grabbed her by the back of her collar and proceeded to drag her away.
"Is that a dungeon!?" Olivia was the only one to say what everyone was thinking.
"It's the rarer above ground type, but in layman's terms, yes." For one thing so many angels were built with flight in mind, there was only so much that high ceilings can do for them. So open air dungeons like this were where they truly shined, though right now they were in the process of having their numbers culled by the flying figures that were hunting them in the sky. "Umbra is making me go down there and kill some angels and demons. The First is just business, the latter is apparently 'getting too uppity for their own good.'"
"Can we go into the Dungeon!?" Angelica asked looking at Leon with excitement in her features.
"...we should talk to Rodin first. And remember you did promise me that you were going to help me get my business up and running." Leon realised that sending the Duke's daughter into an actual literal den of nightmares was a bad idea.
"Oh we did that already." Angelica replied dismissively.
"Say what?" Leon asked sounding surprised.
Father,
The Coffee is everything we hoped it would be, it's too high maintenance to grow in the field but that's not a problem because it keeps so well. I've already made arrangements for the first batch to be sent out to support our troops, I don't need to tell you how important this drink's ability to keep our troops awake during long periods is.
Sincerely, Jillian Fou Patton
A letter to General Patton.
Understood. A Baron's territory is too small to meet our supply needs, I will arrange for a suitable island to be transported to the Blackmores, alongside people to populate the territory. Congratulate the Viscount on his promotion for me.
General Patton's reply letter to his daughter.
Daddy!
Blackmore's business is going to blossom nicely, we need to get into their good graces soon. I recommend we send over some harvesters as soon as possible to get on his good side. I've also studied the designs for the armour he used during the duel, I sadly wasn't able to study the armour itself, the demon made a convincing argument. At gun point. So I've settled on the blue prints, certain features must be altered of course, but there are enough revolutionary innovations here to keep us busy for years.
Sarah Fia Winchester's letter to her father Arnold Winchester.
Pumpkin!
So good to hear from you again! The can of coffee beans you sent me has been a delight to have in the morning. We've got some older bulk models in storage that no one wants to buy anymore, updating the tech and other insides is a good first step, there's also your innovations to take into consideration too. There's plenty of small old models that are gonna be good to be converted into civilian models for your new friend. With luck the next time he needs some armour and weapons he'll know who to call.
Arnold Winchester's reply letter to his daughter.
Name: Blackmore Coffee Company.
The Company is stationed in the Blackmore territory, the island in question was initially within the bounds of a Barony, with the addition of the mansion/work house and a additional island from the confiscated lands of the Lafans the territory now comfortably sits in the middle range of Viscounts. With the company's sizeable seed fund additional airships have been bought, with the royal army providing the armed escort for the ship and the advance payment as discussed between Duchess Angelica Redgrave and Viscount Blackmore.
A description of the Blackmore Coffee company's progress, filed by Clarice Fia Atlee.
"Should I be impressed or angry that you all took the initiative to start my business for me behind my back?" Leon asked sounding like he was both annoyed and impressed.
"I'll simply settle for 'you're welcome.'" Angelica replied smugly.
Angelica wasn't fond of the idea of Leon learning the ins and outs of his new business in the confines of a bar, learning that said bar apparently doubles as a adventurer's tavern immediately made Angelica's attitude pull a 360 degree turn. Locked in racks behind various metal rods were various Devil Arms of Rodin's very own design, the entire room was his personal trophy case.
"So should I assume that we're giving the Pirates the day off then?" Rodin asked from behind the bar, dutifully serving the role of a guild receptionist too.
"Are you going to pay them for their day off?" By 'Pay' Leon meant 'The pitiful food scraps and shelter that they give the ones that make it out of the forest alive with something useful.'
"No but I suspect it's not wise to release them into the same area that we have a duke's daughter on her 'adventure.'" Rodin once again proved a limitless well of wisdom.
"I'll just take her to a different area than them." Leon countered bluntly applying flawless logic.
"Fine." Rodin pulled out a drawer and started sorting through the list of Monsters that needed putting down. "These are the ones that Umbra's sending you after." Rodin explained dropping the cards on the table. "I also have a few recommendations for your friend." Another set of cards. "Call it 'expanding her horizons.'"
Angelica had already finished using the tavern's one changing room and now Olivia was the one using it instead, and she just finished too coming out in her battle mage outfit. Suddenly every weapon that was on display started to rattle at the same time, many of them attempting to pull themselves off the wall and into Olivia's direction as if they were all demanding that she wield them. Rodin took a long draw of his cigar at that.
"Leon, with me now." Rodin stated as he went into the back room of the bar, Leon letting out a sigh as he followed. Leon took a seat on an alcohol cask as Rodin turned to glare at him. "Tell me everything you know about that girl right now." Leon correctly assumed that he didn't mean Angelica.
Leon discussed everything with Rodin, Olivia's magic class demonstrating her high healing proficiency, how that and her good looks led to her spending days getting chased by jealous girls with malicious intent, followed up by her training under Leon, her budding friendship with Angelica and now they were here.
"You've managed to bring something very dangerous into our home." Rodin did not mince his words as he spoke, even as he remained perfectly calm. Then again a being as ludicrous tier as he? Worried simply wasn't in the man's vocabulary.
"What's the problem?" Leon asked ignorant to the contents of the situation he's created but concerned non-the-less.
"Left and Right are both Shadow Demons, creatures born of Envy. Among all of Inferno they are some of the most spiteful, vicious and jealous creatures you'd ever meet." Rodin explained as he started to pace around the storage room. "Our experiments with them and the other Shadows was to teach them humanity, turn them into creatures that we could control and manipulate. Left and Right took the initiative to rescue a young lady in trouble, indicating that they have begun to grasp what we were hoping to teach them. But a shift in personality this drastic? Surrounded by so much toxic behaviour at the school?" Rodin shook his head in the negative, he didn't buy it for a moment. "Olivia though does present an alternative."
"And what would that be?" Leon watched Rodin take a draw from his cigar.
By now Leon knows that's what Rodin does when he wants to pause the conversation long enough to carefully think through what he was going to say.
"If I had to guess. The Twins helped her because Olivia asked them to." Rodin released his breath with a puff of smoke.
"...is that it?" Leon asked confused at this so called 'nugget of wisdom.'
"Magic users, especially untrained ones like your friend, often release crude spells in the heat of the moment when their lives are in danger." Rodin realised that Leon was already deep in the Kool-Aid, so he had to explain to his god son the situation carefully. "Even though the school calls what Olivia does 'healing,' in actuality it's closer to 'the direct manipulation of organic matter.'" Rodin tapped the side of his head. "This is organic matter. The same magic that allows Olivia to kiss your boo-boos away lets her manipulate it as well, changing your memories, your preferences, your personality, all pudy in her hands." Leon's eyes went wide in realisation before settling down.
"If Olivia was capable of all that she wouldn't be getting bullied all the time." Leon stated applying logic to the situation.
"A scenario for which you can thank for Olivia still being alive." Rodin stated pointing with his cigar. "Olivia hasn't gotten the formal magical education to do this consciously or intentionally, she was however desperate enough to use this magic to try and save herself regardless." Leon's face made a screw at that.
He wanted to think about why he's been hanging out with Olivia so much and taking care of her but was coming up empty, certainly not anything that wouldn't amount to Olivia's magic affecting him the same way that it affected his demons. Even the Basilisks were letting Olivia treat them like puppies, and speaking as the person who raised those mutts, they didn't even act like that back when they were actual puppies. Then Leon thought about the situation some more, the Crown must know about Olivia's potential abilities too, the fact that they invited her to the Academy may mean that they want her to develop those powers too, and maybe even use them. So long as she doesn't come into direct contact with the actual royal family, they can kill her at any time. Or maybe they're already trying, it would explain the amount of overwhelming hostility that Olivia is receiving from the other students too. Leon also couldn't be certain that he and his demons were the only ones being affected either, Angelica and the other girls could all be subject to the same processes as well. The most important possibility is that none of his assumptions are true, and that whatever plans that are surrounding Olivia aren't actually based on her powers but something else about her. Either way they needed to take action.
"Lemme talk to Olivia." Leon stated bluntly. "I'm not going to make her aware of her abilities for now but magic control training in general should make her stop firing off by mistake." Rodin nodded his head in the affirmative, but also expectantly waiting for Leon to keep going. "I'm also going to talk about this with Angelica, as one of the few high ranking, high influence noble ladies that I know, if she is in on this then..."
"Good." Rodin looked satisfied. "I'll be the one handling Olivia." Leon felt a cold chill go up his spine as Rodin's words. "You take the other one."
Well, Leon now had the task of leading Olivia to the gallows. Fantastic. When Leon re-entered the Tavern proper the weapons were all still making a racket, most of these things were made out of body parts from the demons themselves, they would easily qualify as 'organic matter' just like Rodin said.
"Olivia, Angelica!" The two girls looked up from what they were doing as Leon spoke. "My God Father over there wants to work on Training Olivia for a bit." Leon thumbed in the direction of the man in question. "He says you're a natural talent." Based on the way all the weapons were reacting to Olivia, they really couldn't argue with his assessment. "He's going to teach you about the Dance Casting I showed you from the school's dance." Olivia looked excited as she turned around to face the man in question, and frowned looking at his tall, muscular and intimidating features. "He's a lot more graceful than he looks." Leon looked away from Olivia awkwardly.
"Is he the one that used to 'train' you by hurling cannon balls at you?" Olivia asked looking concerned, and based on the way Angelica's face twisted she was just as concerned.
"No." Leon refused to look Olivia in her eyes as he spoke. "... He's very strict though, so I would recommend that you do what he tells you to while you're training under him though." Even the Weapons went silent as Rodin kept being brought up, as if they were all afraid of incurring his wrath.
"Leon." This time it was Angelica's turn to put her foot down. "Would you care to tell me more about your God Father?"
An immortal man feared as the most dangerous demon in the entire barren wasteland of Inferno. Freely traveling between the human world and Inferno, it is nearly impossible to guess his location at any given time. His sudden visits to Inferno are said to be for hunting its savage, ruthless demons and taking their souls.
It is rumored he was once a resident of Paradiso with the power of creation, but witnessing his acts in Inferno, most would think him more suited for destruction. Though his principle purpose for collecting the souls of Inferno's denizens is to use them in making his weapons, he himself is never seen sporting anything but other than his bare fists: true testament to their unbridled power.
As the famed weaponsmith of Inferno, he destroys to create, then creates to destroy. His true objective is still a mystery, though perhaps he is waiting for someone to appear who will finally have the power to undo him.
Excerpt from the Lemegeton Guidebook of Demons.
Review Section:
hnh058513: Yeah, basically.
RedRat8: It always annoyed me how we never saw Chris and Greg's fiances, it also helped me play into Greg's egotistical delusion of not needing proper equipment.
RonaldM40186867: Maids.
Rodvek97: Well more accurately it's two girls and three friends. Sorry, Sarah and Jillian don't have any interest in him.
Kyo: Glad you like it.
guest09: Oh I'm not getting any rest. I have two stories I have to finish by January and another I want to get ahead on on top of working on this one.